The Extra Strategist’s Royal Road Chapter 313
I was anxiously waiting for the report when a messenger hurriedly rushed in and shouted.
“Reporting! Most of the troops trapped in the enemy’s ambush have retreated and are reorganizing their formation!”
“What about Ilya Anfei’s unit?”
“The battle in that direction has also ended. Gaspar and Lysithea have been seriously wounded and are retreating! Ilya Anfei’s unit has gone incommunicado.”
A flowing silence.
Ash widened his eyes.
“Lysithea is injured! What kind of injury!”
“The specific details are not yet known.”
“Damn it! Where are they now?”
“They are retreating to the Slava supply base.”
Ash mutters to me with a grim expression.
“Ars, don’t let this fail.”
“…Okay. Yumir, you go with him.”
Yumir nodded silently, seemingly curious about Gaspar’s condition.
After the two left, everyone was watching Anton’s reaction.
Anton had his eyes tightly closed and was not saying anything. Unlike Ash, he seemed unwilling to move without my command.
He was prioritizing loyalty to me over personal emotions.
“It’s a difficult situation, isn’t it?” Olaf sighed.
“What do you mean?”
“Family participating in the battle. I have no worries since Meissen and Julia are in rear support, but you are different.”
“It’s the same. Meissen and Julia are probably praying for your safe return. The soldiers on the battlefield are the same. In the end, we are all the same.”
“Well, rationally thinking, that’s true. But if a family actually loses a life, everything becomes distorted. That rational coldness disappears, and only revenge remains. I wonder if the enemy commander Rancia Galeron aimed for that part.”
“Perhaps. He wanted to see how I would react. He wanted to see my nature and capacity.”
“Sacrificing nearly 10,000 troops for a simple psychological warfare. As expected of a legendary general, he’s quite bold.”
The enemy’s officer hunt had an unexpectedly significant impact.
Even setting aside the key officers, countless mid-level and high-ranking officers had died.
While mid-level officers could be partially replenished by mass-promoting lower-ranking officers, high-ranking officers were different.
“…”
“…”
Time passed quietly in the suffocating atmosphere.
Everyone was waiting for the report of master Ilya’s survival. Given the situation, there was no rational possibility of her survival.
Anton seemed to think the same and spoke to me in a suppressed voice.
“Please do not be swayed by her death.”
“…”
“Ilya would also want this. Please firmly resolve not to be consumed by revenge and ruin everything.”
“…I know.”
Even though he would be the most heartbroken, he was comforting me.
That’s why it resonated more deeply.
I will take revenge. But I do not intend to ruin everything because of it. I plan to calmly defeat the opponent precisely for the sake of revenge.
Just as I was making this resolution.
Another messenger rushed in. Everyone had an expression of ‘it was bound to happen’, but…
“Urgent report! Ilya Anfei has survived! She has safely joined Sophia’s unit!”
“How is that possible! Is there a possibility it’s false information spread by the enemy?”
“No! Lieutenant Gunther directly provided the information!”
“Huh…!”
Although I couldn’t understand how, we had avoided the worst-case scenario.
I immediately prepared and headed to the Slava supply base where Sophia was organizing the situation.
* * *
The enemy troops moved to hunt officers.
While their troop losses were much higher, our officer losses were overwhelmingly significant.
Sophia was calculating the scale of damage by consolidating intelligence networks.
Ilya, my master, sat beside her with a vacant expression.
“Ilya!”
Anton, overwhelmed with emotion, embraced her tightly.
I asked Sophia, “Did you send support to save my master? If so…”
But Sophia shook her head.
“It seems there were internal power struggles among the enemy.”
“Internal power struggles?”
“It was the enemy, not our army, who saved her. Aggert… You would know him best, wouldn’t you?”
“Aggert…!”
Aggert, who roams the battlefield as Calvern’s adjutant and helps us at various points.
However, in this war, Calvern is in charge of the central front, making contact with Aggert difficult.
“Listen to the details from Ilya. I’m busy reorganizing the troops.”
Sophia grabbed Olaf and had him help her work.
Olaf made a face, wondering why he was dragged along.
After waiting for Anton and master’s reunion, I asked her, “Master, what exactly happened?”
Her expression crumbled. She began speaking while shedding chicken-feed-like tears.
After hearing the full story, I was unable to speak for a while.
“Guderian…”
From his attitude, I could sense he was contemplating various thoughts.
He must have struggled significantly while forcibly leading the radical beastman faction against his will. Even though Tetra Anistria had instigated them, they had massacred numerous civilians.
As their leader, Guderian would have felt responsible, even if it was his subordinates’ actions.
Moreover, he would feel responsible for the beastmen’ future.
Since they had committed civilian massacres, they would have to be held accountable in some way after the war.
He had initiated this incident for that purpose.
Now that Guderian, the beastmen’ leader, had openly betrayed them, Svenner would inevitably harbor doubts about the entire beastman population.
‘If that happens, they will gain a reason to surrender to us.’
Perhaps for those who are impossible to reform, they will be left with Svenner, and for the prisoners who are not like that, the plan is to make them all surrender to our side.
To become that first button, he decided to carry the burden himself and die.
The reason for this timing was because of his disciple master Ilya.
Because he wanted to finish it somehow with his own hands.
“…Ars.”
Master continued speaking without suppressing her emotions.
“I am now planning to leave the battlefield. I do not want to go against my master’s last wishes. So please understand.”
“I understand. I will now discharge Ilya Anfei, a mercenary and military officer of Liande, from service at this very moment.”
Guderian’s intent also resonated with me.
Because I was thinking the same thing.
Thus, I tried to discharge Eonia at this opportunity, but Eo absolutely refused, insisting that she could not do so.
If she were to retire together with me, that would be fine, but she said she could not retire first on her own.
Her stubbornness was something I could not break, so I had no choice but to give up.
If things had ended like this, there might have been no aftermath, but the other side deliberately created that aftermath.
Specifically, they sent Guderian’s corpse to our formation.
The next day at noon.
With a rattling sound! Guderian’s corpse was carried on a shabby wagon.
If this had been a courteous act, it might have garnered goodwill, but it was the opposite.
The corpse was damaged everywhere and humiliated. Written in the language of the prisoners in various places were the words ‘traitor’, and the two arms he had wielded his military equipment with throughout his life were torn to shreds, with bones visible.
“Master…!!”
Master Ilya embraced the corpse, wailing.
Burning with a desire for revenge, she seemed ready to rescind her retirement, but Anton firmly grasped her shoulder.
“Do not worry, Ilya. I will definitely finish the revenge against those bastards.”
Eyes blazing with fire.
The military officers were also burning with the desire for revenge, having lost a fellow officer.
Although they suffered the loss of numerous officers, the military’s morale and cohesion had actually risen compared to before.
* * *
As this battle was strongly characterized as a preliminary and reconnaissance battle, the enemy also did not move their military beyond that.
A terrible cold wave had also arrived, so both armies crouched down, maintaining distance.
We were also considering the military’s fatigue, alternately stationing soldiers at three-day intervals.
At times like these, it would have been better if snow was pouring down heavily.
In that case, both we and the enemy would be unable to advance.
The news of snow came a week later.
Snow pouring down as if holes were being punched through the sky.
After completing snow removal near facilities and supply routes, we had some overall leisure, so we increased intelligence personnel to monitor the enemy’s movements and issued a military leave order, leaving only minimal troops.
Even if called a leave, it was merely staying in nearby cities close to the battlefield, not knowing when they might be called back, but the soldiers were happy even with that.
With this leisure, we could also rest.
I decided to entrust field command to Sophia and return to Grancel’s mansion with other vassals.
Due to the heavy snowfall, we had to travel by carriage for two full days.
The atmosphere in the carriage was exceptionally heavy.
Gaspar, who had engaged in a bloody battle with the enemy commander, was still in a coma.
It was said that because he received timely treatment, he might have died on the spot otherwise, having suffered a major injury.
Lysithea had been in a coma for five days and had even lost sight in one eye.
Ash was looking at Lysithea’s eye patch with a sorrowful expression.
“Todolam Dorlen…”
The legendary military strategist who inflicted major injuries on my two vassals and killed Guderian.
Anton was quietly burning with fighting spirit while muttering that name.
Upon arriving at the mansion, the heavy atmosphere was somewhat alleviated.
Seeing the children playing and making snowmen in the mansion’s yard made me smile involuntarily.
Master Ilya, unable to control her emotions, rushed and hugged her son Gawain.
“Sob! Gawain…!”
“Mom?”
Gawain seemed to have never seen his mother cry before and looked blankly.
Ryuna and the twins also discovered me and came running noisily.
Ryuna seemed most enthusiastic, wanting to show off the snowman she made.
But she stopped abruptly when she saw the limp Gaspar.
“Grandfather, what’s wrong? Are you sick?”
Ryuna looked at Gaspar worriedly, seemingly having learned the concept of grandfather.
“Don’t worry too much. He’ll wake up soon.”
However, the situation was not as hopeful as the words suggested.
Because Gaspar was extremely elderly, his recovery was not keeping up. Like a candle slowly extinguishing, he was losing his life force.
While the holy magic here could miraculously heal external wounds, it could not restore vitality, so we needed to find another method.
As we entered the mansion, Ryuna followed in small steps.
When we laid Gaspar on the bed, she tapped his arm, making a sad face as if asking him to wake up.
“Ars, this doesn’t seem right.”
Ash shook his head.
“Let’s quickly go to the outside continent and find a way.”
“I know. That’s why I came here first.”
“Here…?”
“Because she is here.”
No sooner had my words ended than Erina and Estelle appeared.
My business was with Estelle.
Estelle raised her eyes upon hearing my words.
“With blood magic?”
“Yes, is there a way to restore his vitality?”
Since blood magic could even resurrect the dead, I thought there might be a method.
After much contemplation, Estelle cautiously began to speak of one possible method.
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